Coffee 2-15-14

 
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michaelanthony
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Post by michaelanthony » Sat. Feb. 15, 2014 9:55 am

Good mornin' all, great coffee and choice of breakfast Freddy. I had a hard time gettin' out of bed after moving all the heavy white stuff yesterday. Now I need to come up with a plan so the Mrs. can tend the stove next week, I am having foot surgery to remove a bunion and straighten out a couple toes so I will be a heavily medicated couch potato for a few days.


 
KLook
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Post by KLook » Sat. Feb. 15, 2014 10:02 am

Phew, much needed coffee! More laughs for the wife and I as we went out to grocery shop last night and the stores are still having empty shelves from the storm of the century here! :o :shock: Went over to the liquor store for wine and joked about the empty shelves and the guy told us he had just got a shipment in that day or we would have seen empty shelves in his store! Too funny! In other news, we are thrilled the UAW failed to get into the VW plant. I am hoping to get a shot at job there and I am not in favor of being in a union.
Hey Lisa, you spurred me to look into getting a package of bees and I found a supplier not far way in N. Ga. Going to dig out some new hive stock and build me up one. Should be different here then in E. Maine.

Kevin

 
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LsFarm
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Post by LsFarm » Sat. Feb. 15, 2014 10:45 am

Good Morning everyone, and a good morning it is !! The sun is out, supposed to be out for much of the day..

Momma Nature must have taken a few boxing lessons: that's a real 'one-TWO' punch you folks out east are getting !!
YIKES !!

Well I fell victim to the deep snow here, [yeah, we have had a lot of it too, just missed the last two]
My old barn across the driveway, is a hodge-podge of buildings, covered areas, lean-to's etc.
And some of it was built like the old sections of my house that I bulldozed and rebuilt a few years back, meaning LOUSY.

So I was out giving the feral/wild [mostly] barn cats some cat food and water, and I heard a loud crack.. though OH *censored*.

Went around to the back of the barn which has a concrete pad, covered by a tin roof. under the roof is a friend's Pontoon boat, and old cube-truck, and an old motorhome... yeah, I know, I'm a packrat.
The back section of roof is where the pontoon boat is stored each winter. and the roof overhead recieves not only some drifted snow if the wind and weather is right, but it also catches the sliding off snow from the barn roof above.

The resulting build up was a lot deeper than I had thought. Not that I'd thought much about it,, it's out of sight, out of mind. The roof 'joists' are 2x10's and should be doubled 2x12's.. and they had split sometime in the distant past, and had poorly added 'splints' nailed on..
The nails pulled out from the splints, the roof was coming down..
As I watched, another 'CRACK' and I saw the roof sag some more.. There was a length of 2x8" leaning against the barn nearby, I grabbed it, it thankfully was close enough to being the right length and I jammed it under one of the cracked, splitting roof joists.. At least the roof wouldn't come down any further.. but what a mess.

My buddy who stores his pontoon here was home, I told him about the impending insurance claim for a new boat, :shock: :lol: and he came a runnin' :D
I had a few errands to run, took the truck instead of the minivan, stopped at the lumber yard on the way back, got a load of 6x6's, 4x6's and brought them back.
He was there, I'd also called another friend, the one helping put up the big addition on the shop. He came over too.
Between the two of them, they jury-rigged a few props under the worst of it..
and then got up on the roof and shoveled much of the snow off the roof.
I think it will keep until a couple of those ladies show up: May, or June. even the mis-spelled Julie [July] .

So, today I will give a 'coal-burning' course 101 to a new forum member who lives only about 20 miles away, he's coming over to see some black rocks burn and look at some stoves and share some ideas and have some coffee.

I did shovel a path through the big snow drift on the back deck,, it's deep and it needs to go !! or It will all be water standing and trapped under the deck and against my new basement wall, and then being forced down and under and I'll just be pumping it away with the sump pump.. what a waste.. so I'll generate some energy instead of burning electricity.. muscle energy.. LOL.. now, where is the bottle of Motrin ?

OK got to get some stuff done..

I hope everyone is OK through this next load of snow.. all you east coast people.. what did you do to piss off Momma Nature??

Greg

 
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NWBuilder
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Post by NWBuilder » Sat. Feb. 15, 2014 11:11 am

Mornin Everyone,
Mother nature does seem a bit pissed at us Greg!! We got 17 inches here Thursday and Friday, only 4 schedule for today but 2 more storms are possible next week!!! People are hunkering down here more so then necessary. We had 2 games schedule for today and both got cancelled from the fear of the snow that is coming. Games would be over before it is scheduled to start. I'm not about risking life and limb but come on people grow a set!! Running low on places to put the snow, I thought I pushed back enough in the beginning, actually thought I was over doing it, glad I did as much as I did and wish I had done more. Lesson learned. Be well all and stay warm!! NWB

 
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LsFarm
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Post by LsFarm » Sat. Feb. 15, 2014 11:33 am

Some photos of the collapsing roof.. The previous 'repairs' were obviously poorly done.. Some look pretty new, and I asked my buddy who stores his pontoon there if he had done them, he said yes, that he had meant to come back last summer and do a better job,, but the summer past him by too fast.. :shock:

Greg L
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This is what is left after lots of sunny days and a day of rain . So it's been reduced by about half.. good IGLOO making snow !

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Carbon12
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Post by Carbon12 » Sat. Feb. 15, 2014 11:35 am

Please be careful. I know I "woodn't" want to be under that roof anymore than I had to,....if at all!

 
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LsFarm
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Post by LsFarm » Sat. Feb. 15, 2014 2:42 pm

LOL, you would have laughed if you had seen me looking at the broken boards, looking at it to get a 'game-plan' in mind, and then it cracked and settled another 1/4" I think I set a new record for 'air-space' under my boots ! :shock: :lol:

My buddy just left, they have a pretty good set of columns under it now, and unless something pretty heavy hits the roof, like 2' of wet snow slides off the upper roof onto this weak one, it will hold until summer.

One of our new forum members and his wife just left, they had a two hour course on coal burning, stove design and construction. They said they needed to get home to put wood in their wood stove, or the house would be cold.. !!
Hopefully they will soon not be slaves to the wood eater. at the least not next season.

Greg


 
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Carbon12
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Post by Carbon12 » Sat. Feb. 15, 2014 2:59 pm

Glad you got to share information. If it's the member I think it is, he seems like he'll fit right in with us coal burning wackos! :D

 
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SMITTY
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Post by SMITTY » Sat. Feb. 15, 2014 8:47 pm

Geesh Greg ... I'm definitely shoveling my roof tomorrow!! Mine isn't one-tenth as steep as that, and looks to have the same joists. I did recently just re-deck it with 3/4" plywood, but that picture has me frightened. Hope it makes it through the night! :shock:

Pretty sick and tired of this CRAP weather!! Going to need a new plow for the Polaris soon. Getting a workout - bigtime! I've probably plowed 300 miles with it. At least the weather's been "warmer" - went 2.5 days on one dump of the ash pan.

I had the unfortunate experience of being on the road most of the day today. WOW people in MA NEVER learn to drive in snow!! Saw 5 separate sections of roads where 2 tire tracks suddenly turned into 4! :lol: Every time I saw that I was talking to myself out loud, using expletives, asking what might be wrong with people ... One guy on a hill looked like we went into the ditch. Was in the road, but I saw tire tracks all over the place, and a guy in a truck was putting tow straps away. He looked peeved as I squeezed between him and a snowbank with an inch clearance on both sides. Ain't got all day to wait for people who insist on driving on bad tires in winter. :roll:

Oh ... gotta get that snow off my trailer too! :shock: That's next in line for collapse ...

WHY did I ever leave Phoenix???? :bang:

 
CapeCoaler
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Post by CapeCoaler » Sat. Feb. 15, 2014 10:54 pm

Blame me, I made the Rain comment...
One of the Boston stations called for 12-18 on The Cape..
I had 'Suicide Alley' almost to myself...
Someone lost it and crossed over into the opposite traffic lane...
They had RT. 6 closed behind me and ahead of me...
but I was behind the fire chief and got thru...
Now I did know it was the fire chief and had no idea of the carnage that lay ahead...
Until he threw on his lights a mile before the accident slowed down to 10 mph...
then the sea of blue and red lit up the night...
Took about 10 minutes of waiting but they had the last of the people packed up...
Had to weave between the wreckage on both lanes of the road...
There is a two foot wide 8" high asphalt berm dividing the lanes...
Must have been a wild ride...
Had no problems in the FWD Sienna, did 43 mph and stayed in control...
It is the other people I fear...
Like the one doing 15 mph down the middle of a 4 lane road...
They were pissed that I passed them...
they flashed the lights, blew the horn and tried to block me from passing...
I did it on a straightaway and was in the SLOW lane of the opposing traffic...
Stay the *censored* off the roads if you can not or do not like to drive in snow!!!!...
Thanks for the vent...
I know how to drive in the snow and had a critical repair to be made at a 24/7 business...
I did get a very nice Grilled Cheese sandwich while I was there...
No ordinary Grilled Cheese mind you...
but I missed the Duck Confit Grilled cheese by one day... :(

 
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Freddy
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Post by Freddy » Sun. Feb. 16, 2014 3:08 am

CapeCoaler wrote:Had to weave between the wreckage on both lanes of the road...
Glad you weren't part of the wreckage!
LsFarm wrote:Some photos of the collapsing roof..
Close call! I'm glad it hung in there until you could brace it.

 
coalnewbie
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Post by coalnewbie » Sun. Feb. 16, 2014 3:40 am

My wood burning neighbor apparently has a problem, his oil CH furnace sprung a BIG leak. The plumbers can't get up his steep hill as he can't plow anymore. His IH scout is stuck, his 4wd Deere is stuck and the plumbers truck is stuck now that the town plow buried them.Time for the big league.. He was told he urgently needed to get a salamander under the floor or he was toast. His wood insert burning damp wood throws out no heat :o .Our CAT 955H cleared things up in a jiffy thx to our farm manager (tough gal and what a great equipment operator) and now we needed to get heat in his home ASAP as with wind chills it's going into the minuses again and the house is close to freezing now. So working on the CN mindless overkill motto, what was lurking in the barn and BTW I paid next to nothing for it?
icg3.jpg

ICH Frostfighter 500,000 BTU

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40' of 20" hose, a little dusty but who cares at this point. HO/kero driven - started right up (it has a new Beckett burner------ zowza, zowza what a monster... the plumber wants to buy it. I'll send him down to LL in the spring (there are no atheists in fox holes). Cocoa and a little Chevas Regal apparently cheered him and his wife up no end sitting around the Hitzer turned up to No 7 (nobody can stand it any hotter -whew). Mindless overkill is a good starting point ......

 
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Kennebago
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Post by Kennebago » Sun. Feb. 16, 2014 4:07 am

Its good to have great neighbors....but great neighbors with great equipment.....esecially with overkill philosophy.....priceless. Great job!

 
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Rob R.
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Post by Rob R. » Sun. Feb. 16, 2014 6:57 am

That salamander is the real deal. Probably burns 5 gallons per hour, but that's ok...sure beats a frozen house!

955 Cat....isn't that a track loader?

 
coalnewbie
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Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: LL AnthraKing 180K, Pocono110K,KStokr 90K, DVC
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Coal Size/Type: Rice,
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Post by coalnewbie » Sun. Feb. 16, 2014 8:39 am

955 Cat....isn't that a track loader?
Yes and the greatest and your point being? In that situation no track would have meant no go. 5 galls an hour well I've never measured it but I would not be surprised why do you think they had to give it away. Does anyone have a coal conversion kit. :x


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